A workshop on food risk analysis applied to food regulatory decisions is being organized in the Ivory Coast capital Abidjan, on 4-5 April 2018. The workshop gathers food regulators from Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal and is implemented by the Food Risk Analysis and Regulatory Excellence Platform (FRAREP) of Université Laval, Quebec, QC, Canada, supported by the Foreign Agricultural Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA/FAS) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The workshop is part of a program of targeted interventions supported by both US agencies and aimed at strengthening capacity in food regulatory policy development in West Africa, in accordance with best practices advocated by the Codex Alimentarius Commission and its parent organizations the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

This initiative is carried out at a time when Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal and the West African region as a whole are witnessing significant investments to enhance food safety regulatory oversight, resulting in reviewing and updating the structure, mandates, operations and capacity of food safety competent authorities. As a result, FRAREP is partnering with the Inter-Professional Fund for Research and Agricultural Counsel (FIRCA), which is leading efforts to renew the national food safety control system (FADCI-SSA) in Cote d’Ivoire.

This workshop will be an opportunity to review, discuss and exchange experiences in the way food regulatory decisions are made and structured thanks to the reliance on risk analysis, as a basis for sanitary measures, taken by food competent authorities with the aim to protect consumers’ health and ensure fair practices in the food trade.

An innovative approach will be applied, combining both lectures and group work during a 1.5-day meeting, as well as online interactions and access to key information before and after the meeting itself, thanks to the Distance Learning Platform of Université Laval. “Sustaining the benefits of investments in capacity development and triggering what may lead to lasting impacts in enabling robust food safety regulatory measures in the region is the aim pursued by our Platform in contributing to the implementation of the capacity development Program supported by the USDA/FAS and USAID in West Africa ” declared Prof. Samuel Godefroy, Professor of Risk Analysis and Regulatory Policies at Université Laval, formerly a senior Canadian food regulator and serving as one of the key instructors of the workshop.

Further interventions are being considered in the region in the near future, with the aim to propagate best practices in food regulatory decisions and in line with international guidelines.

This article was previously published in the December 2016 -issue of the AOAC International Food Allergen Community – A presentation on this topic was made at the 4th Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Meeting – in 2016.

Over the last 20 years, several actions have been taken by various players with the aim to enhance the protection of food allergic consumers. While several measures targeting the improvement of ingredient labelling, with emphasis on allergenic ingredients, have been harmonized thanks to standards promulgated by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, far more needs to be done in relation to the use of precautionary statements. Allergen precautionary statements continue to be diverse, to be used under different conditions and are not necessarily supported by risk assessment. As a result, these labelling practices are not helpful to consumers.

When one examines the history of food allergen management, it is easy to note that most regulatory measures that were developed at the national level took place after the Codex Alimentarium Commission known as Codex and acting as the international food standard setting body, developed its global standard on food allergen labelling in 1999. Several years were required, and expert advice was mobilized at the global level by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to come-up with a set of criteria for the identification of food ingredients that have the potential to be allergenic. These ingredients were then covered by mandatory declaration on food labels.

Several domestic food regulatory policies were then amended and the world witnessed the development of a number of allergen labelling regulations and legislations in Australia/New-Zealand, Europe, the United States of America, Japan, Canada and a number of emerging economies in Latin America and Asia.

All these requirements were based on the Codex Standard and ensured to prevent the omission of declaration of food ingredients known to be priority allergens, when these ingredients are deliberately added to the recipe of a prepackaged food.

This did not however address all issues allergic consumers and their care givers are having with food labels. The propagation of use of allergen precautionary or advisory labeling in the form of “may contain” statements and other iterations is undermining consumers’ confidence and their trust in the reliability of information offered by food labels.

While precautionary statements were initially meant to address situations of possible cross-contamination due to an allergenic ingredient, which cannot be avoided under reasonable food processing conditions, there was no clear guidance as to how they should be applied in a manner that is risk based.

Statements of different types are popping on food labels, with no regard to what they may mean or what they can do to help informing the choice of allergic consumers and their families. Others are being used with no particular justification, other than to “cover a potential liability”. The practice has even led to witnessing precautionary statements on food labels that cover the entire list of priority allergens and that are longer than the list of ingredients itself. No wonder that confusion reigns, not only for consumers, but also amongst the health professional community, whose guidance is sought in helping allergic consumers manage their avoidance of potentially offending foods.

The scientific community acknowledged the problem and agreed that investing in the development of the scientific foundations for a risk-based approach to be applied would contribute to addressing this problem. A decade later, several studies resulted in the generation of thousands of data points related to thresholds for food allergen reactions. Risk assessment methodologies have also been discussed and are being adapted to food allergens as a food hazard. Allergen analytical methods have been developed and are being used to help validate sanitation practices and other quality control and management measures. We have even witnessed the development and adoption of allergen control programs by the food industry sector in an attempt to create “order and structure” as to how allergen advisory labeling should be used.

While food allergen-related recalls continue to top the list of food recalls in North America, Europe and some parts of Australasia, there is limited to no leadership from domestic food regulatory jurisdictions to move forward with clear regulatory measures focusing on allergen precautionary statements. Such measures would be the cornerstone for a more predictable environment for industry and consumers on food allergen management.

Allergen-related recalls continue to top the lost of food recalls – source: 2006-2013 recall data Canadian Food Inspection Agency Website

Learning from history to address this conundrum can be useful in this case. I would argue that like what happened in the 1990s and early 2000s, it is time for Codex and its parent organizations to act. Attention needs to be given to the development of global guidance related to allergen thresholds, allergen precautionary labeling and management of cross-contamination and adventitious presence of priority allergens in food manufacturing. These global standards could then lead the way in driving change in domestic food regulatory requirements in this area, which could then use the legitimacy of the international process. The time has come for Codex to lead again on this issue.

I realize that suggesting such an approach, can be met with cynicism, given how long some international food standards can take in the making. But Codex has also shown that when its membership wants, it can. The first Melamine standards that Codex embarked on developing in 2009, took only one year between decision to act and adoption of the standard, making it the fastest agreed-upon Codex standard to date. Opponents to this approach would also argue that there is currently no interest on the part of Codex to work in this area, nor would there be resources made available. My argument back is that momentum can indeed be created. The case can be made for Codex standards being needed, given the discrepancies of food allergen management policies and their impacts on international food trade. The case can also be made that scientific data has been generated over the past decade or more and could be relied-upon for international expert groups to be convened by FAO and WHO, to guide Codex with the relevant scientific advice. Finally, and should there be a will to act, funding could be mobilized from various government organizations currently struggling to move forward with addressing this issue and who would benefit from pooling resources under the auspices of a collective initiative.

It is possible for history to repeat itself. Twenty (20) years after the initiation of the process that led to allergen labeling measures as we know them influenced by Codex leadership, action leading to renewed international guidance on food allergen management is overdue.

This first edition aims to gather food regulators, food industry partners and representatives of the clinical community and service providers from the region. Specific emphasis will be made to enhance the representation from China, with the intent to continue raising awareness and to contribute to dissemination efforts of best practices related to food allergen management.

This will be an opportunity to engage with Chinese Stakeholders to discuss current efforts to manage and prevent food allergy incidents as well as management of gluten. Discussions will also include possible future consideration of updated food regulatory requirements to manage allergen and gluten sources in food, in China and in the Asia Pacific Region.

Presentations will be made in English and Chinese with Simultaneous Interpretation offered.

The One day workshop will be held on November 3rd 2016 at the Shanghai Marriott Hotel City Centre.

Registration to this one day workshop only can be made at the very competitive registration fee of 1,000 RMB (cost after October 1st).

The annual event of the Quebec Food Protection Association (AQIA) is to be held in Quebec City from 5-6 October 2016. This year’s symposium will be part of the biannual event BENEFIQ2016, the rendez-vous for health ingredients, organized by Institute of Nutrition and Functional Food (INAF) of Université Laval, Québec, Canada.

It is still possible to register and participate in the event either via the BENEFIQ2016 website or through the AQIA Website

The Symposium’s Program is attached and is covering the broad theme: “Innovation in Response to Current and Emerging Food Safety Issues”

We have the privilege of welcoming Dr. Martine Dubuc, Vice President Science Branch of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Chief Food Safety Officer for Canada, who will be giving the keynote lecture and opening officially the 2016 AQIA Symposium.

We look forward to meeting you on the 5-6 October 2016 in Quebec City, QC. Canada.

This workshop was an opportunity to meet and engage with members of the Science and Technology Community of Argentina: colleagues from Academia, the food regulatory community and industry groups.

Discussions and presentations addressed current and future trends of food production in Argentina, Latin America and Worldwide, challenges to develop sound and robust regulatory mechanisms, science and risk based regulations, the imperative to use the regulatory instrument after careful consideration of instrument of choice analysis, where regulation was found to be a possible effective mechanism to address the risk. Discussions covered the European food labeling requirements, trends in nutrition and allergen labelling as well as front of pack labeling.

We were fortunate to have the contribution of Dr. Pamela Byrne, CEO of the Food Safety Authority of the Republic of Ireland, Judith Meech, Secretary General of the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) and the Senior Leadership of the Argentinean Association of Food Science and Technology (AATA), in particular Prof /Dr. Susanna Socolovsky.

A great discussion followed on good regulatory practices and on challenges and opportunities for the use labeling as a risk management and sanitary measure.

I feel privileged to contribute to the upcoming conference organized by IFA/Tulln – BOKU under the leadership of Professor Rudolf Krska, and related to Innovation in Food and Feed Safety – Education, Risk Analysis and Novel Technologies. This event is held on April 5th, 2016 in Tulln Austria.

This is a model for open scientific events to share the latest developments and to introduce a number of multi-year initiatives in research and capacity development in food safety and quality. In particular, the project MyToolBox, aiming to foster a set of tools to assess and mitigate risks associated with Mycotoxins in food, will be introduced, as a major EU food safety funded initiative with global outreach.

It is also our opportunity at the Department of Food Science (Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science) of University Laval, Québec, QC (Canada) and at the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods, to engage with and learn from peer institutions with the aim to foster collaborations in our areas of development: food risk analysis and competency development domestically and internationally.

Access to clean water and clean air is a fundamental human right. Similarly, access to safe food is another necessity. Food safety is a condition for food availability and therefore for food security. Beyond the clear public health benefits expected as a result of compliance with food safety requirements, enhanced food safety is a prerequisite to consumer confidence and therefore to market access. Consumers around the world demand access to safe food and are increasingly aware of and sensitive to existing and emerging food safety risks.

Food and food products are also amongst the most traded commodities domestically and internationally. Safety and availability of food products is therefore a condition for and a demonstration of economic development and prosperity. Innovation in the food and agri-food sector, the development of trends aiming to enhance the sustainability of food production, to decrease its environmental impacts and its energy consumption requirements are also interrelated with food safety, food security, food quality and consumer concerns.

Having the 2015 Universal Exhibition currently hosted by the city of Milan, Italy, fully dedicated to the theme of Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life offers the unique opportunity for a platform of dialogue, exchange, and stronger leadership in identifying and analyzing trends and emerging issues, in sharing best practices and in promoting collaboration and partnership to address challenges in food safety, food security and sustainability and to support research and innovation in the food and agri-food sector.

The opportunity to hold a World Food Forum scheduled for September 22-23, part of Milan Expo 2015 is visionary in many respects. This platform offers to convene national and international food policy makers, food regulators, international and development organizations, food business leaders, the Finance, Science, Research and Innovation community, as well as representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It offers to become a permanent platform for dialogue amongst leaders of the food sector to promote partnerships and collaboration. For a number of actions that address food safety, food security and sustainability, the mobilization of all sectors (public, private, academia, NGOs) and the creation of partnership are key to success. In following the principle that dialogue is a prerequisite to multi-sectorial action in response to multi-faceted challenges, I am hopeful that this new Forum will:

enable and stimulate strategic engagement, policy discussions and dialogue on challenges and opportunities of the food sector, with a particular focus on sharing best practices and lessons learnt from partnership initiatives in food safety, food security and sustainability, as well as food research and innovation

promote leadership in the development of robust partnerships, concerted action and more investments to address challenges in food safety, security, sustainability and innovation.

Food is such an important determinant of human health and human prosperity that we owe it to ourselves to make this Forum a successful platform for such cooperation.